Fear of a Black Tangent

by

Busdriver

Edit

There are those who insist that "real rap" is dead, that it was killed by R&B and Gansgsta and Crunk. They are the ones who stopped listening.

Busdriver gives hip-hop a new direction with rapid-fire, esoteric lyrics with a sophistication and intellectualism that rises above the collegiate Chubb Rock; like Professor Griff without the agenda.

"Unemployed Black Astronaut" is the showcase track here, a catchy tune with a sing-along chorus that deep down unloads double cynical barrels on mainstream hip-hop, major labels, even racial and urban-cultural divisions. He continues his lament against both mainstream music and cultured music critics with "Reheated Pop Sensation", a song-length prostration parody.

Even Busdriver's own adoptive subgenre of music is fair game for the rap critic of rap, with "Avantcore" glibly mocking the contrarians of underground/alternative hip-hop. The album ends with remixes of three of the album's showcase tracks.

No, rap is not dead, it never died, you just fell off. Time to get back on the bus.

i've been following the underground rap scene for a long time, particularly project blowed and spinoffs. i've also been a fan of busdriver since his CVE days. he's always been original, witty, surreal, intelligent, and pretty damn FAST. i recently bought the import 'cosmic cleavage' which was brilliant. then i bought this album.

wow. busdriver is not a happy man, judging from his lyrics. he ranks on the music industry, the state of indie rap, rap fans(particularly the granola backpacker set he seems to attract), and most of all, himself. i gave this album three stars because of its beats, but honestly this is one of those un-ratable albums. this is an experiment in self-destruction, a cry for help from a man that expects to drown anyways. this is deconstructing everything you or your listening audience ever thought about hiphop. this is busdriver reaching the cul-de-sac of self-referentialism. it's depressing. it's like he gained so much attention but it didn't work out, and now he finds himself stuck in a genre of music that he doesn't understand anymore. that said, i don't know the man personally, so i can't say this is fact, but it is definitely what he portray's on this disc. i can't say it is good or bad. it's an artist seeing his own reflection and having serious doubts to its own validity.

buy it to support the artist, but personally i haven't found it a pleasant listen lyrically. good beats though. mush records and affilliates usually come through on that end. peace.